You know, from the get go one of the goals of ZF2 was simplicity, though it sounds like it's regressed in that area. Speed was another goal. Though at the present, that's regressed as well:

http://www.enrise.com/2012/02/zend-framework-2-performance/

In ZF's defense, the ZF team has stated that they're aware of the performance problems and that they'll look at those at a later stage. However, that, combined w/your review, combined w/the complexity I see every time I view a profiled call stack of a ZF app in KCacheGrind, really make me want to start rolling my own framework. I've done just that w/my JavaScript, and I'm loving the net positive in simplicity and speed. The growing complexity of ZF makes me want to go that direction with my PHP code as well (though I'll probably look at simpler frameworks first, like Lithium) .

In regard to the following line of ZF2 code cited in the post ...

$message = $this->getRequest()->query()->get('message', 'foo');

That line in ZF1 would look like ...

$message = $this->_getParam('message', 'foo');

Not much of a difference, but I wonder what was wrong w/ZF1's less verbose alternative?